Groupon can be beneficial for some businesses and not so much for others. When restaurants run on Groupon they hardly make money off it. The reason being they have to over staff for the 3000+ people that are going to show up the day after the deal ends. The cost of ingredients equals the value of merchants receivable from Groupon. There is no margin for profit. End of the day if the service is good, new customers will visit that are now willing to pay the whole price. It gets the word out for less known businesses. Takes time but the rewards are fruitful. For other businesses that don't have high costs definitely make good money. It helps people to try out new things. A good example is driving a nascar for an amazing deal.